Canadian Arrow Completes Drop Test

hpulley writes "The Canadian press is reporting that X-Prize entrant the Canadian Arrow made its first successful crew compartment drop test on Saturday. It is essentially a modern version of the German V2 rocket. This test was just a drop of the crew compartment to test the parachutes. Next comes a launch abort test to see if the crew can be safely sent away from the vehicle. No word yet on when they might launch the consecutive flights in two-week turnaround for the prize. Fellow Canadian entrant the da Vinci Project will try to launch October 2nd. In the fall, venerable model company Estes Rockets will have a new model of the Canadian Arrow along with models of other entrants like the Rubicon." Oddly enough, I saw the crew compartment being driven around in Toronto on Saturday morning (towed behind a white pickup truck), but I didn't know what they were up to.

Tintin?

[Peden]

Incredible how much that arrow looks like a smaller scale model of the rocket used in the comicbook about Tintin from the French cartoonist Hergé.

Re:Tintin?

[mangu]

As Hercule Poirot would say, Hergé was a Belgian.

Re:Enlighten me...

[Peden]

Yeah, but correct me if I am wrong... The people participating are doing it for a variety of other reason such as publicity, or just something to do in their spare time, with their spare money? John Carmack is said to use something like 60hours a week on Armadillo, and I doubt it that he is doing it to win 10million.

Re:Enlighten me...

[aelbric]

IMHO, I believe it's a combination of trying to get a jump in the emerging market of private space travel, trying to get one's name in the history books, and (hopefully) a great deal of the explorer spirit that appeals to more thoughtful people. This will need to be done, why not do it now while there's a little extra incentive?

Re:Tintin?

[goon america]

...which is because both the Canadian Arrow and the lunar rocket in Tintin were based on the V2.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2 [wikipedia.org]:

The lunar rocket in Hergé's Tintin comic books Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon looks like a V-2, as do most science fiction rockets of the 1950's. What is unique about Hergé's book is that they also feature the chessboard test-pattern.

I was there and have pix...

[jqs]

My wife and I got up early, biked down to the islands and took the ferry over. We had a perfect vantage point as the crew compartment came down approximately a kilometre from us offshore. We were even closer to it than the emergency crews that were on hand in case it landed on the island (and you didn't see the slow moving object on parachutes coming at you...).

Re:Woot for canada

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhhh, isn't Scaled launching Sept. 29?

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm [scaled.com]

Re:Woot for canada

[aelbric]

Sorry, greatest respect for the Canadian team, but my money is on SpaceShipOne, literally. Bought stock in SpaceDev when they announced the engine contract for SS1. Pretty cool technology too, essentially, the SS1 engines burn a combination of rubber and nitrous oxide as fuel. Very safe and non-polluting from what I understand. Also capable of stopping and restarting after initial ignition. Can't do that with a solid fuel booster.

Hmmmm...maybe they should declare that they own the IP for Linux to pump the stock up. Gotta go make a call.....

Re:Obligatory Tom Lehrer quote

[3) profit!!!]

No, the quote is,

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?

That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

Re:O.o;

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the first time... The Japenese built manned cruise missles in WW2.